the politics of covid

Are we just too 'individualistic' to stop the spread of the Coronavirus?

.

THE CULTURE AND POLITICS OF THE CORONAVIRUS

The cultural dimension recognises the huge political importance of the collective orientation (communitarians) or individual orientation (individualists) mentioned previously. Although all leaders call for solidarity at times of major crisis, there are clear differences between the political reactions of communitarians and individualists in Europe. There are governments, such as those of Spain, Italy and France, that threaten steep fines for endangering the community, whereas Britain, for example, has responded by emphasising personal responsibility.

THE CULTURE AND POLITICS OF THE CORONAVIRUS | clingendael.org

.

The Shift Americans Must Make to Fight the Coronavirus

We are stubbornly hung up on a damaging idea of self-reliance.

As COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, spreads in the United States, it is becoming clear that America’s individualistic framework is deeply unsuited to coping with an infectious pandemic. Right now, one of the most important things Americans can do is deploy measures like social distancing and self-quarantining, even if they do not feel sick and are not at risk of the worst effects of the disease, in order to “flatten the curve” (epidemiologists’ term for slowing down the natural progression of an outbreak). This requires a radical shift in Americans’ thinking from an individual-first to a communitarian ethos—and it is not a shift that is coming easily to most, especially in the absence of clear federal guidelines.

The Shift Americans Must Make to Fight the Coronavirus | theatlantic.com

.

Has Britain become too selfish to cope with coronavirus?

Stopping the virus’s spread is about putting others first – but we all know what’s happened to vaccination levels

When death came to the village of Eyam, it was probably hidden inside a roll of cloth. Bubonic plague is thought to have been carried to this remote corner of Derbyshire from London back in the 1660s by infected fleas, trapped in a bale of fabric ordered to make costumes for a festival. The sickness spread fast, killing dozens of villagers and leaving many on the verge of fleeing in panic – but then something extraordinary happened.

The rector of Eyam, believing it his duty to spare neighbouring towns from infection, persuaded his parishioners to take the astonishingly self-sacrificing step of sealing themselves off from the world. They would live or they would die, but nobody would leave until the sickness had burned itself out. One mother is said to have buried six of her children, yet by staying must have saved countless other women from the same fate.

It’s impossible to read the story of Eyam without wondering who on earth would be capable of such selflessness now. When it came to the crunch, how many of us would secretly have more in common with the local squire, who fled after the first few deaths and left his neighbours to their fate? Compared with 17th-century peasants, modern Britons simply aren’t enormously used to the idea of sacrifice for the supposed collective good.

Has Britain become too selfish to cope with coronavirus? | thegurdian.com

.

Coronavirus: What could the West learn from Asia?

It's far too simplistic to say, as some have, that Asians are more likely to comply with government orders. In Hong Kong, public trust in the government is low - and there have been months of anti-government protests. But, in one of the densest cities in the world, many have voluntarily socially distanced themselves - with some even avoiding Lunar New Year gatherings, the equivalent of skipping Christmas events.

Prof Pangestu believes that while Hong Kongers do not trust the government, "they are very proud of Hong Kong, and see the outbreak as a threat to [the territory's] identity".

Meanwhile, Karin Huster, a Seattle-based nurse and emergency field co-ordinator for Doctors Without Borders, spent a month in Hong Kong working on coronavirus training. She noticed many there had a strong "individual sense of responsibility" because they remembered the 2003 Sars outbreak that hit the territory particularly hard.

That's also seen in the prevalent use of masks in part of Asia, which Ms Huster says is seen as a sign of "respect towards others". She noticed that occasionally people would avoid getting into a lift with her because she was not wearing a mask. By contrast, in much of the West, people have specifically been told not to wear masks unless they are ill, and many Asians have experienced harassment while wearing one.

Experts in Asia agree that masks are far less effective than measures like hand washing, and that where supplies are limited, they should be left for healthcare workers. But there are different opinions over whether wearing a mask is worthwhile.

Benjamin Cowling, an epidemiology professor at the University of Hong Kong, argues: "Masks are not a magic bullet against coronavirus… but if everybody wears face masks, it probably can help, along with all the other measures [like hand washing and social distancing], to reduce transmission. The evidence base is quite thin, but we presume they have some effect, because that's the protection we give to healthcare workers."

When it comes to social distancing, Ms Huster says: "I think in America, people are so individualistic - it's going to be a little harder for us to sacrifice our 'freedom'." She previously worked on the Ebola outbreak, where people were also required to wash hands more frequently and socially distance, and says the biggest challenge "was making people understand the need to change the way they were doing things".

Coronavirus: What could the West learn from Asia? | bbc.co.uk

.

The political fallout is immense.

.

Firstly, at least in the UK and the US, the poor and minorities - aka 'key workers' - are at most risk:

.

A Harvard study has found that long-term exposure to air pollution may significantly increase the risk factor for many of up to 240,000 Americans predicted to die from COVID-19. From a survey of over 3,000 U.S. counties it found people who have lived for decades in a place with high levels of fine particulate pollution are 15% more likely to die from the disease. “If you’re getting COVID, and you have been breathing polluted air, it’s really putting gasoline on a fire,” said the study’s lead author, Francesca Dominici, a Harvard biostatistics professor…

How Clean Air Cities Could Outlast COVID-19 Lockdowns | forbes.com

.

Coronavirus: Ethnic minorities 'are a third' of patients

Dr Zubaida Haque, deputy director of the race equality think tank Runnymede Trust, said ethnic minority communities were over-represented among families living in poverty and over-crowded housing.

"They're also more likely to be in low-paid jobs or key workers - crucial transport and delivery staff, health care assistants, hospital cleaners, adult social care workers as well as in the NHS," she said. "All of which bring them into more contact with coronavirus and so increase their risk to serious-illness and death."

Coronavirus: Ethnic minorities 'are a third' of patients | bbc.co.uk

.

A tale of two New Yorks: pandemic lays bare a city's shocking inequities

“Coronavirus has exposed New York’s two societies,” Jumaane Williams, the public advocate who acts as the official watchdog for New Yorkers, told the Guardian. “One society was able to run away to the Hamptons or work from home and have food delivered to their door; the other society was deemed ‘essential workers’ and made to go out to work with no protection.”

Different boroughs, even different neighborhoods within each borough, are experiencing coronavirus almost as though it were two different contagions. In wealthier white areas the residential streets are empty; parking spots that are fought over in normal times now stand vacant following an exodus to out-of-town weekend homes or Airbnbs.

In places like the Bronx – which is 84% black, Latino or mixed race – the sidewalks are still bustling with people making their way into work. There is still a rush hour. “We used to call them ‘service workers’,” Williams said. “Now they are ‘essential workers’ and we have left them to fend for themselves.”

The public advocate pointed out that 79% of New York’s frontline workers – nurses, subway staff, sanitation workers, van drivers, grocery cashiers – are African American or Latino. While those city dwellers who have the luxury to do so are in lockdown in their homes, these communities have no choice but to put themselves in harm’s way every day.

If you superimpose a map of where frontline workers live within New York over a map of the 76,876 confirmed cases in the city, the two are virtually identical. In Queens, the most intense concentration of Covid-19 infections are in precisely those neighborhoods with large numbers of essential workers...

A tale of two New Yorks: pandemic lays bare a city's shocking inequities | theguardian.com

.

Secondly, it's been the state to the rescue - and a general questioning of an individualistic approach and the neo-liberal order:

.

The corona crisis will define our era

Karin Pettersson writes that the pandemic has highlighted the frailties of a short-sighted and hyper-individualistic social system.

This is the big one, this is the great crisis, the Financial Times writes. I am convinced that 2020 is a year that will define our era. One can compare it with the 2008 financial crisis. That led to recession and mass unemployment, but not to the death of hundreds of thousands.

Already however, we know this: this type of disease cannot be efficiently fought at an individual level, but only as a society. It requires preparation, co-ordination, planning and the ability to make rapid decisions and scale up efforts.

But nor is government enough. The situation demands personal responsibility, a sense of duty, concern for one’s neighbour. If you do not belong to a risk group, your responsibility is not so much to protect yourself but to take care to protect others, even if that pushes you towards personal discomforts.

Yet what will you do if you simply cannot afford to stay at home? If you are illegally in Sweden (say), hiding from the authorities, or a ‘gig’ worker without regular salary in the US, living from hand to mouth? Sustaining health as a public good becomes impossible at a certain level of inequality and insecurity.

This problem can be reduced neither to ethical virtues nor to a need for investments. What can be said, though, is that the crisis puts the flaws of our short-sighted, exploitative, hyper-individualistic times in glaring focus. Our bizarre era, where we pretend that we do not all connect, and that what I do does not actually affect your future.

The corona crisis will define our era | socialeurope.eu

.

A great equaliser

Branko Milanovic writes that the coronavirus is reminding some of the world’s privileged what it is like to experience its daily stigmas.

Economic history shows epidemics are great equalisers. The most cited example (for which we also have most data) is still the Black Death, which hit Europe around the mid-14th century. In some places, it killed up to one third of the population.

But by reducing population, it made labour more scarce, increased wages, reduced inequality and led to institutional changes which—for some economic historians, such as Guido Alfano, Mattia Fochesato and Samuel Bowles—had long-term implications for European economic growth.

According to these authors, the growing power of labour was checked in southern Europe by restrictions on its movement and other extra-economic constraints imposed by local landlords. In northern Europe, however, where feudal institutions were not so strong, after the Black Death labour became more free and more expensive, which set the foundations for technological progress and eventually the industrial revolution.

A little over two months of coronavirus have already wrought economic changes. Many will be easily reversible if the epidemic is quickly contained and stopped. But if not, they may endure. And, as with any extreme event, epidemics suddenly shed light on certain social phenomena which we hazily know about but often tend to ignore or prefer not to think about.

A great equaliser | socialeurope.eu

.

Coronavirus and the crisis of capitalism

The viral pandemic is exposing the weakness and unsustainability of the global economic system.

In 1895, Cyrus Edson, the New York City health commissioner, published an article titled The Microbe as a Social Leveller. Edson, echoing the language of 17th-century English communist Gerrard Winstanley, wrote that “the microbe of disease is no respecter of persons”. He explained that while impoverished people would be most at risk from disease, the rich would never be entirely safe from infection. For Edson, the “socialism of the microbe … is the chain of disease, which binds all the people of a community together”.

Coronavirus and the crisis of capitalism | newframe.com

.

.

.